Ethiopia PM Abiy Ahmed replaces army chief as Tigray casualties mount

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed replaced his army chief on Sunday, as scores of soldiers were reportedly wounded in a five-day-old conflict in the country’s northern Tigray region.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner separately called for the international community to understand the military operation he launched this week against the Tigray ruling party, which he has accused of seeking to destabilise the country.

Abiy said the once-dominant Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had “sponsored, trained and equipped any force that was willing to engage in violent and illegal acts to derail” the democratic transition he has pursued.

“I personally call upon the international community to understand the context and the consistent transgressions by the TPLF clique” which pushed him to take military action which has included airstrikes and heavy fighting.

Pope Francis added his voice to mounting concern from abroad of a slide into protracted civil conflict, calling for Ethiopia to “reject the temptation of armed confrontation”, urging prayer and dialogue.

Tigray regional president Debretsion Gebremichael in a televised statement called for the African Union “to play its role to prevent Ethiopia from spiralling into civil war.”

Abiy also on Sunday replaced army chief General Adem Mohammed with his deputy Berhanu Jula, without giving a reason.

And he replaced the foreign minister, federal police commissioner and transferred the president of Amhara region to head Ethiopia’s intelligence service.

The announcement came as a medical official told AFP that nearly 100 government soldiers had been treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital in the northern Amhara region, the latest indication of intense fighting.

Abiy and military leaders have touted Ethiopian soldiers’ successes against forces loyal to the Tigray ruling party, but a communications blackout in the region has made their accounts difficult to verify.

Long running feud

On roads in the northern part of Ethiopia’s Amhara region, ambulances could frequently be seen ferrying wounded combatants to hospitals.

In the town of Sanja, 98 government soldiers have been treated for “gunfire” injuries, a doctor told AFP.

“We have had 98 cases. All of them are soldiers from the national army,” said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said none had died at the hospital, but noted that more serious cases were transported to larger hospitals in the city of Gondar and elsewhere.

Reports of dead and wounded soldiers have mounted in recent days in Amhara, where a humanitarian aid worker said three died and 35 were treated on Saturday. On Friday 105 were reported injured and five killed in the region.

The TPLF dominated politics in Ethiopia for nearly three decades before Abiy came to power in 2018.

Under Abiy, Tigray’s leaders have complained of being unfairly targeted in corruption prosecutions, removed from top positions and broadly scapegoated for the country’s woes.

Abiy accused the party which “played a leading role in the systemic abuse of human rights and massive corruption” of seeking to derail his reformist agenda.

The long-running feud became more intense after Tigray held its own elections in September, defying Abiy’s government which had decided to postpone national polls due to the coronavirus pandemic.

And this week Abiy accused the TPLF of attacking a military base, which the party denies, sparking the military intervention.

Humanitarian worries

Abiy ordered airstrikes on military assets in the Tigrayan regional capital Mekele, while warning more would be on the way and urging civilians to avoid gatherings to limit “collateral damage.”

A UN advisory distributed Sunday morning reported an “ongoing air strike in Mekele” close to the airport, with an update specifying “there was only one strike heard and the related ripost [sic] from the ground.”

Berhanu said Sunday that federal forces had “fully destroyed the heavy weaponries of the traitorous clique”, a reference to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the regional ruling party.

Berhanu also said federal forces had “completely captured” four towns in western Tigray, where much of the fighting has reportedly been concentrated.

A UN report dated Saturday called on warring parties to allow humanitarian access in Tigray, warning that conflict-related disruptions were “contributing to the worsening of the humanitarian context”.

It noted that the region houses 100,000 displaced Ethiopians, nearly 100,000 refugees and “approximately 600,000 people dependent on food relief assistance”.

All told nearly nine million people near Tigray’s borders are “at high risk due to this conflict”, the report said, raising the possibility of “massive displacements within and outside of Ethiopia.”

Lawmakers on Saturday voted to suspend Tigray’s current leaders and install a caretaker administration.

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